Improvement in fire-places



B. S. RA-N K I N.

Fire-Place.

Patented Aug. 24,1875.

UNITED STATES PATENT QFFIGE.

CHARLES s RANKIN, on COLLEGE HILL, OHIO.

IMPROVEMENT IN FIRE-PLACES. v

- Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 167,020, dated August24, 1875; application filed June 19,1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES S. RANKIN, of the town of College Hill, inthe county of Hamilton and State of Ohio, have invented certain new anduseful Improvements in Fire- Places, of which the following is aspecification:

My invention consists in providing fireplaces with double doorspermanently hinged to the jambs, to be made use of either as a summerfront or as a blower when unfolded. Each door consists of a series ofleaves, capable of being folded together, and is attached to the side ofone of the jambs, which have recesses formed in their sides, into whichthe respective doors can be folded, so as to be out of the way, andwholly uncover the fire-place.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a view in perspective of agrate embodying my improvements, one of the folding doors being fullyunfolded, one leaf only of the other being seen; and Fig. 2 is atransverse vertical section of the grate, shown in Fig. l, the sectionbeing taken at the dotted line 00 m in Fig. 1.

A is the grate, B the basket, (J O the jambs, D the back. and E thecrown, of the grate. This crown is composed of narrow tiles F, theirrear ends supported by the back D, and their front ends by an angle-bar, G. The plate H, hinged to this angle-bar at it, performs thefunction of narrowing orenlarging the throat of the flue at the pleasureof the operator. Each folding door is here composed of three verticalleaves, K K K, hinged together at their edges, near the top and bottom,the leaf K, nearest the jambs, being hinged to the latter. A recess inthe side of the jamb receives the door, when folded np, thus enablingthe latterto be placed entirely out of the way. The number of leavesemployed in each door may be varied without altering the principle ofthis part of my invention. In the leaves of the doors are the openingsM, whose purpose and office have been already mentioned. Higher up Ialso form openings M. When the doors are unfolded, if it were not forthese openings the air would only enter below the leaves of the door,and through the openings M, and the heat of the fire be increased tosuch an intensity that the doors would soon be heated to a red heat, andbe warped and burned. These openings, in conjunction with the doors whenunfolded, act as a blower to alimited extent, until the fire is wellkindled, and the combustion increased to a moderate degree, but preventa high degree of combustion, because they distribute cold air above andin front of the bed of the fire, and thus by diminishing the rarefactionof the air in the flue reduce and restrain the velocity of the draft andthe intensity of the combustion.

I do not claim, broadly, a folding front for fireplaces, as that isembodied in Patent No. 79,391. I am also aware that articulatedfirescreens have been so attached to fire-places that they might befolded against the front face of thejambs. But I am not aware thatfire-places have ever before been provided with double folding doors,which could be folded into recesses in the side of the janibs, leavingthe front of the j'ambs wholly intact, as I have shown and described.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

In combination with a fire-place having recesses in the sides of itsjambs, double folding doors, which are permanently hinged to the sidesof the jambs, and are capable of being folded into the recesses therein,substantially as specified.

CHARLES S. RANKIN.

Witnesses:

T. W. DUSTIN, A. ,0. WAMSLEY.

